Computer technology is increasingly used by travelers to make traveling less difficult and more efficient. Automated booking systems, for example, enable travelers to view prices and schedules for passenger vehicles such as airplanes, buses, trains, subways, ferries, cruise ships, etc., as well as purchase tickets for such vehicles when a suitable match is found. Flight and public transportation status systems are available to track delays in scheduled flights, buses, subways and passenger trains, often enabling travelers to view in real-time where a passenger vehicle is current located and when it will arrive at its intended destination. In addition, for road travel by car, traffic information is often available in real time to enable travelers to identify delays on certain routes, and in many cases, to change their planned routes in order to avoid delays.
Concurrent with the improvements in computer technology is an increasing reliance on mobile devices such as smart phones by travelers. Many travel-related tools that were once limited to access via computers, e.g., via web sites, are now optimized for access via a mobile device, whether by mobile device optimized web sites or web-based applications, or via dedicated mobile applications.
Despite these improvements in travel-related computer technology, challenges still remain for many travelers. In particular, travel-related information is often available from a multitude of different sources, and often a traveler is required to know where to locate desired information from multiple different information providers in order to answer relatively basic travel-related questions.
For example, many travelers are often confronted with a crucial question: when should I leave to be on time at the airport or the rail station being sure I will not miss my flight or my train. Particularly when a traveler is located at a different location from the airport or rail station, the answer to this question is deceptively difficult to answer. A business traveler, for example, may be visiting a client or customer at that client or customer's facility, and scheduled for a flight later that afternoon or evening. The traveler may be tied up in meetings all day, and have limited ability to check various travel information sources to determine when he or she absolutely needs to leave for the airport. As a result, travelers in such situations are often subjected to significant stress trying to decide when they need to leave for the airport, or if necessary, reschedule their flight.
Much of the difficulty associated with answering the aforementioned question is caused by all of the variables that can make it difficult to accurately calculate when a traveler needs to leave in order to make his or her ticketed flight or train. For example, the transfer from the traveler's current location to the airport or train station may be affected by delays associated with the mode(s) of transportation used for the transfer. If traveling by car or taxi, for example, the amount of time required to reach the airport or train station will vary based upon distance, route traveled, and the presence of any traffic along the selected route. If traveling by public transportation such as bus, subway or rail, the amount of time may further be impacted by schedules and delays in service.
Moreover, even after the traveler has reached an airport or train station, additional time will typically need to be allocated to ensure that the traveler has sufficient time to board and depart with his or her scheduled flight or train. Security checkpoints, for example, may introduce delays, and some airports or train stations may be large and spread out, and require additional time for activities such as returning a rental car, walking to a ticketing station, walking to the security checkpoint, and/or walking from the security checkpoint to a departure gate. Furthermore, different airports and train stations, as well as different carriers, may implement different rules that impact when a traveler needs to reach the gate in order to be allowed to board the ticketed passenger vehicle. For example, in order to ensure that a passenger vehicle is able to leave on time, a rule may be implemented that prevents boarding within 10 minutes of a scheduled departure.
In addition, a scheduled passenger vehicle or train may itself be subject to delays, e.g., due to a delay in the arrival of an airplane at the airport on a previous flight due to inclement weather.
Another important question often posed to travelers in similar situations is: if I want to stay longer, is there a later flight or train? A business traveler, for example, may be requested by his or her client or customer to extend his or her stay an hour or two beyond when the traveler was planning on leaving for the airport. In that case, the traveler is often unaware of later flights, and even if later flights are available, whether any change fees are required in order to change his or her reservation.
Conventional approaches to provide travelers with travel-related information have been proposed, but have not been satisfactory for solving the aforementioned dilemmas. For example, some train status monitoring systems map times to distances to enable a passenger scheduled to depart on a train to be automatically rescheduled on a later train if a time corresponding to the distance from the traveler to the train's departure station is greater than a time until the traveler is scheduled to depart on the train. In addition, such systems may send an alert to a traveler when the traveler is found to be not moving to encourage the traveler to leave as soon as possible in order to make their scheduled departure. In addition, some travel information systems may provide real-time travel management for travelers traveling by multiple modes of transportation, e.g., to automatically reroute a traveler based upon real-time travel information, or in the least warn a traveler of an unexpected event that has arisen since the traveler commenced their travels.
Therefore, a substantial need continues to exist in the art for an improved manner of providing travelers with status information suitable for enabling them to determine when they need to commence a trip, and in particular, when they need to commence a transfer segment of a trip in order to board and depart on a passenger vehicle disposed at a geographically distant location from their current location and/or to determine whether rescheduling is available and appropriate.